Na'vi
The Na'vi are a race of sentient extraterrestrial humanoids who inhabit the lush jungle moon of Pandora. Humans are known to refer to them as "Blues", "Savages" or "the locals". Description ]] :The exotic Na'vi are, on average, three meters tall with smooth cyan-colored skin, large eyes, and sweeping tails. They are the only known extraterrestrial species discovered to have human-like consciousness and intelligence. They have developed a sophisticated culture based on a profound spiritual connection to other life on their moon, each other, and an encompassing "spirit" they call Eywa. :The Na'vi seem to have a different evolutionary ancestor than other creatures that share two pairs of eyes and three pairs of arms-legs-or-wings, but they have a Queue which indicates the ability to make a bond with the enviroment.1 Habitat and Range :Various biomes of Pandora. Population concentrated in rainforest regions. Outlying clans have been detected on each continent and in subarctic, swampland, and mountainous regions.1 :Some Na'vi clans, including the Omaticaya, live in tremendous ancient trees they call Kelutral, or "Hometree." Physiology Smooth skin is iridescent, cyan color. Long tails. (Note that their tails are not prehensile, despite some guides indicating otherwise.) High cheekbones, feline ears and large yellow eyes. Bioluminescent markings aid in identification and mood display. Average life span is similar to that of a human. Despite skin color, Na'vi have red blood.1 Waist is narrow and elongated. The shoulders are very wide, creating a V-shaped upper back. The neck is long and body slender. Musculature sharply defined, giving no sense of emaciation despite thin proportions.1 Skeleton is reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. Average male is 3 meters (9.8 feet) tall, females slightly smaller.1 Three long fingers plus opposable thumb on hands; four toes on feet. (It should be noted that the Na'vi/human hybrid Avatars have five digits on both hands and feet.) Highly evolved nervous system includes a "Queue" which resembles a long, rather ostentatious hair braid. This seemingly conventional braid actually sheathes a remarkably intricate system of neural tendrils that can be connected to similar structures of other life-forms. See Queue.1 They have roughly four times the strength of the average human.1 Reproduction mechanics similar to humans and other Terran mammals, however see Mating. Diet :Omnivore. Hunter and gatherer with incipient agriculture.1 Clothing :The Na'vi are weavers whose dress is primarily for comfort and practicality. Though clan leaders such as Mo'at and Eytukan wear ceremonial pieces, because both men and women fight, there is a balance between adornment and armament.2 Society :Although their society is essentially Palaeolithic, the Na'vi have developed a complex culture based on a profound spiritual connection among all creatures, and to the deity they call Eywa.1 :They are expert hunters and gatherers as well as artisans who celebrate the interconnectedness of nature through story and song. Commentary and Additional Info Appearance and Anatomy :On the whole, the Na'vi are quite similar to humans, both in appearance and anatomically. They are, however, much larger and typically stronger than humans. Na'vi are normally about 3 meters in height. This may be in part due to Pandora's lower gravity than Earth, which, after time will cause a person to "get soft" (as Colonel Quaritch put it), and, pound for pound, they are probably weaker than humans. :Their skeletons are reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber, making their bones extremely rigid and hard to bend-(but they easily crack under focused pressure). :Their hands are graceful, with three very long fingers, and one opposable thumb. However, it should be noted that human-grown Na'vi (the Avatars) have four main fingers in addition to the opposable thumb just as in the human hand. :The faces have high cheekbones and large yellow eyes, maybe twice the size of an average human's. When open they dominate the face, like those of a cat or lemur. The ears of the Na'vi are long and pointed and are able to swivel around much like that of a dog or a cat. The mouth is also large, but essentially human, with a faint cat-like bifurcation of the upper lip. The nose also faintly resembles that of a cat's, but this is only visible in close-ups. The teeth are white, with pronounced canines, upper and lower. The Na'vi species do obviously eat meat, but they are assumed to be generally omnivorous. :The Na'vi have tails which are long and slightly prehensile, but more like the tail of a panther than a monkey. A complex pattern of iridescent dots and lines, perfectly symmetrical, runs over the body, seemingly following the lines of the nervous or circulatory system. These are bioluminescent chromatophores, and they glow in the dark like fireflies. The Na'vi can communicate with these, and in fact they are constantly shifting and changing color to indicate mood and emotion, without conscious control. Na'vi have little hair, and what people often mistake for hair on their heads is an external part of the nervous system. :Queue ::Na'vi have a queue, originating at the back of the head and hanging down almost to the waist. This is in fact not hair, but an external bundle of nerve endings that allows them to tap into the collective, planetary psionic emanations of Eywa, enabling them to "commune" with the planet's flora and fauna. ::While not adding to intelligence, it enables them to share a deep connection and even communicate telepathically with the tree of souls, and any animals with a similar nerve cluster. The Na'vi call it Tsahaylu, or "the bond". When two Pandoran organisms with nerve clusters similar to this engage in Tsahaylu, they gain the ability to share memories and information, and the Na'vi have a special trait that allows them to use the mind-meld to feel as/what their mount does, and as well enables them to move as one under the control of the Na'vi, be it a Banshee/Ikran or Direhorse/Pal'i. This trait is only negated during mating (see below). Clothing :Little apparel is worn by the Na'vi. Cloth, most likely woven from native flora of the planet is the basic garment worn by all Na'vi. It is possible that very little clothing is worn by the Na'vi because it is simply what is needed for the Na'vi to work and live taking minimally from the environment. Clothes appear to also show the ranking of one's importance in the hierarchy of a clan, either by the use of The Omaticaya clan leader, wearing a garment made of brilliant materials interesting or precious materials in comparison to a simple clothing piece worn by a normal clan member. Accessories are added to a Na'vi's attire as he or she moves up in the clan hierarchy. For example, Jake Sully, as an apprentice clan member, wore only an undecorated loincloth; as he learned more about the Na'vi culture, however, he wore armbands and necklaces to display his ranking. Culture :The Na'vi are humanoid creatures that live in various territorial clans across Pandora. Their culture is non-technological, and a premium is placed upon young men either growing up to be fearsome warriors, or dying in the effort. Like all creatures on Pandora, their fate is controlled by the sentient intelligence they worship as "Eywa". They have no choice but to live in harmony and natural equilibrium with their surroundings. If they become too numerous, Eywa will devise a way to limit their numbers before they cause an ecological imbalance. Understandably, the Na'vi have therefore over millenia developed a healthy respect for their surrounding environment. In return, the environment has provided them with sufficient food and shelter, creatures to ride for ground and air transportation, and an ambient, comfortable temperature throughout the atmosphere of Pandora, plus a curious absence of pesky insects and harmful microorganisms. Not surprisingly, when provided for so thoroughly by Eywa, they have failed to develop tools and weapons for purposes beyond primitive warfare with the surrounding clans and hunting. Culturally, they are comparable to Ancient African tribes, Native Americans,Polynesians,and Australia's Indigenous People. Lacking in any tradition of science, they view Eywa as an all-knowing, all-powerful mother goddess, and have developed a complex religion around their interaction with Eywa, centered around the "Tree of Souls", which grows only in rare locations across Pandora. Human Relations :When the Human race begins to search Pandora for valuable minerals, the Na'vi are appalled and angered by the destruction of their jungle home for roads, human bases, and strip mines. They see no need for technology, and hence the damage done by humans in the pursuit of underground minerals seems like nothing more than senseless destruction that violates the basic tenets of their religion. They would look to Eywa for help, but their religion teaches that Eywa cares not for the existence of any one creature, but only for the balance of nature. :At first they were willing to interact with humans, but after concluding that humans had nothing of value to offer to them, they break off contact and start engaging in guerilla warfare to resist the human's mining operations. Mating Practices :The Na'vi are monogamous creatures who mate for life. The mechanics of reproduction in Na'vi are similar to that of humans. However, their unique physiology provides the Na'vi with a level of intimacy unknown to Earth born creatures while mating, or "becoming one". :It had been found that, by culture, the female, if she accepts the male, is the one to initiate Tsahaylu between the couple. The teaching to a learning Na'vi of how they become one with their mate is, by culture, restricted to the female's role of engaging Tsahaylu and the role they both play in choosing/accepting one another. Because of the unpredictability of the bond's depth in the end, which affects the amount of pleasure the couple feel, and tradition stating that It cannot be mentioned, either before or after mating, so as to keep the rare offender from simply constantly attempting to engage in Tsahaylu with one who is not their match, which can be fatal after the first mating, because of the stress inflicted emotionally and physically on a Na'vi sustaining more than one bond. :Traditionally, once a Na'vi male has passed the tests on the path to manhood and has been accepted into the clan as an adult, he is not only allowed to make his bow from the wood of the Hometree, but he may also choose his woman. After the woman has been chosen, she must decide if she accepts the male. If Eywa does not intervene, mating then begins under one of the white bioluminescent trees, where it is believed Eywa may oversee, protect, and show her approval or disapproval. :When a couple begins to mate, the female Na'vi will connect her queue to the male's, called Tsahaylu by the Na'vi, to create an emotional and spiritual bond that lasts a lifetime, beginning the process. The intertwining of queues is both highly erotic and profoundly spiritual, but does not in itself lead to reproduction. Jake Sully chooses Neytiri to become his mate, and she him, under the Tree of Voices following his acceptance into the Omaticaya clan as 'One of the People'. :It is known that the bond created by mating builds gradually, and as true Tsahaylu is made between the couple, "the ultimate in intimacy", the pleasure, builds gradually as well, and causes the somewhat non-willful sharing of the couple's happy memories, and is a sign of Eywa's acceptance. If a couple can be foreseen to not have a pleasant or happy future, Eywa has been known to reverse the feeling produced by making Tsahaylu, a sign to the couple that mating would only, in simple words, ruin their lives together, and therefore prevents the mating, because of it permanence. After the resulting embracing and, occasionally, kissing, the couple is sent into a deep sleep by Eywa, and the two dream hintings of their future together. The couple mating will not only be bonded spiritually and emotionally, but will also gain, while they sleep, a slight physical resemblance of each other, detectable only to Na'vi eyes. This is what allows a couple standing together to be recognized as a couple. The couple will experience the pleasure of Tsahaylu from the moment of connection, until they awaken and have completed mating, when they disconnect and return to the clan, mated for life. Sources Unless otherwise noted, information is taken from the motion picture Avatar. Where details conflict between the film and printed material, the film is deemed accurate. For example, the "Field Guide" describes the Na'vi tails as prehensile, though in the movie they clearly are not. :1 Book: James Cameron's Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide, © 2009 :2 Book: The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure, © 2009 Category:Avatar Category:Na'vi Category:Species Category:Pandora